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After a hard and wet day of rallying around the Headford region of Galway, three out of the 5 Clare crews competing in today's Galway Summer Stages Rally came home to the finish ramp. Congratulations to Joe Baker and Vicky Finn, who take the best Clare MC Crew award, and also to Tommy and Leanne Flanagan, just behind them, and Al and Pat Meany.

Martin and Maureen Kelly had made it up to second in Class 8 after SS7, but retired before completing SS8 (if they'd like to tell us why, I'll pass this on!). Brian McNamara and Jim Casey retired on the last stage of the day, obviously the "black tyres" weren't quite enough

Kerry's Mike Quinn, with Clare's Grainne McEnery calling the notes, finished a creditable 6th overall, taking first in class 14 and the best 2-wheel drive performance of the day.

In the Junior category, Patrick Kelly and Derek Flynn finished the 5 stages which were tackled by the 10 Junior and 10 Mini crews, and managed to come home in 5th place out of 9 Junior finishers, congratulations to them too!

Some photos of some of the Clare members and crews at the start of this year's Galway Summer Stages Rally are now available, click here to view. Pictured is Grainne McEnery, navigating for Kerry's Mike Quinn at No. 8.

When asked what tyres he would be recommending Brian McNamara [108] to use, Jim Casey replied, "black ones".

Missing is a photo of Tommy and Leanne Flanagan, car 103. If anyone has photos of any of the Clare crews on this year's event, please send them to us so they can be included!

Clare club member Brian McNamara is looking forward to a successful weekend as he prepares for his first Galway Summer rally as a driver in his Peugeot 205.

Brian is no stranger to rallying having sat in the co driver’s seat for many events with Ruan’s Richard Casey in their beautiful Mark 1 Escort.

Sadly Richard and Brian have had series of unfortunate non finishes which has prompted Brian to take the drivers position.

Brian starts the Galway Summer rally seeded car 108 under the watchful eye of Clare’s most experienced navigator Jim Casey.

Brian values Jim’s vast experience especially when it comes down to the choice of tyre compound (ref circuit of Munster).

Jim was delighted to be called up by Brian to sit in, as Jim nevourously awaits the up and coming Clare Stages Rally with West Limerick’s fastest driver Aidan Walsh.

We wish Brian and Jim all the best for the weekend.

Come on lads get ye're entries in for the

Auburn Lodge Hotel

Clare Stages Rally 2009

Click here to enter!

2009 Auburn Lodge Hotel Clare Stages Rally
Round 5 - 2009 West Coast Rally Championship
Round 11 - 2009 National Junior Rally Championship

Present in photo from left to right;

Donie Lyne (sponsor auburn lodge),Tom Howard (competitor),Anthony O'Halloran (competitor)
Vicky Finn (event secretary),Rose Kelleher (entries secretary)
Dermot Kelleher (clerk of the course),Darren Hayes (organising team)

Photo: Aidan Sweeney Photography

Clare Motor Club are delighted to announce details of the “2009 Auburn Lodge Hotel Clare Stages Rally”
Clerk of the Course, Dermot Kelleher, from Clarecastle and the New Organising Committee have decided to give the event a whole NEW LOOK for 2009. Dermot Kelleher was one of the founder members of the Clare Motor Club back in 1980 and was also involved together with David Hogan in starting the first Clare Stages Rally in 1988. Dermot has been involved in various rolls serving as Assistant Clerk of the Course and Clerk of the Course down through the years.

Event Regulations will be available shortly “We have decided to move the rally to the Gort Road where we can base all our facilities for the event" commented dermot. I would like to welcome our new sponsor “the Auburn Lodge Hotel” under manager Donie Lyne for their generous sponsorship & support. This is the hotel’s first venture into motorsport and together with the club are pulling out all the stops to make the 2009 event a competitor / family friendly event.

The Auburn Lodge Hotel is run by the Lyne family and its facilities include a Swimming Pool, Sauna, Steam room, Jacuzzi and Beauty Rooms.
The Hotel’s huge car parking facilities will also allow for Parc ferme to be based at the hotel allowing spectators to view the cars, a Rally Village will also be incorporated which will allow spectators to avail of the latest in rally teamwear.

We also have the use of the new state of the art ” Car Perfect Accident Repair Centre” for our scrutiny area where all the rally cars will be checked out for safety. Thanks to Colin Ryan, this will allow for easy movement of rally cars using a one way drive through system and after being checked out by a team of scrutineers from Motorsport Ireland, the rally cars will proceed to Parc Ferme at the rear of the Auburn Lodge Hotel.
The Service Area will be also based in the Gort Road Industrial Estate and the rally cars will visit this area three times on Sunday during the rally. This Competitor Friendly package will allow the Clare Motor Club to manage the event a lot easier and will also avoid any traffic congestion usually incurred with rally cars crossiing the town.”

The organising committee have also decided to reduce the entry fee to 480 euro for the main field and 300 euro for the juniors.

The rally takes place on Sunday September 20th. with a new compact three stage loop chosen. Each stage will be repeated three times. The Rally will leave the start ramp at the hotel at 8.30pm approx. and will return to the finish Ramp at the hotel at 5.15pm. approx.

This years event is Round 9 of the “Top Part West Coast Rally Championship” and is also a round of both the Excel and the new Junior Championships. The 09 Clare Stages Rally is not a round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship as each club has to drop out of the championship every five years.

Click here for a map showing the location of HQ, Scrutiny, and Service.

HQ: Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis. If you would like to be involved, please contact our Marshal Co-Ordinator. Full details will be posted on this website; entries will be taken online.

HQ: Raheen Woods Hotel, Athenry, Co. Galway. Marshals wanted; please contact our Marshal Co-Ordinator. For full details of the event, see the Galway Motor Club website.

The annual running of the Killarney & District Motorclubs Rally Of The Lakes took place last weekend. This is probably the most popular rally in the country and is almost every rally drivers dream to compete there and to tackle the famous stages like Molls Gap, Healy Pass and Ardgroom.

This year, Clare Motorclub had a total of 5 crews competing in the event and they were; Keith Naughton co-driven by Jane Cogan in a Subaru Impreza. Brian McNamara co-driven by Crystal Culkeen in a Honda Civic, Patrick Horan co-driven by Patrick Baker in a Vauxhall Nova, Martin Casey co-driven by Caroline Divilly in a Honda Civic, Derek Flynn co-driven by Eoin Ryan also in a Honda Civic.

Ruan's Martin Casey and co-driver Caroline Divilly from Ballinasloe took 1st in their Class and an excellent 6th place overall in the Junior category of the rally despite losing 3rd gear with a couple of stages still to go. This was Martins first time competing in Killarney and achieved the boyhood dream like many other rally fans of competing in the Killarney event.

Keith Naughton and Jane Cogan in their Subaru finished an excellent 22nd overall in the National category and 6th place in class. Keith is no stranger to the stages in Killarney having competed in many different marques over the years. His co-driver Jane is also no stranger to rallying and is often involved at organisational level of the sport.

Derek Flynn and Eoin Ryan also took part in the Junior category of the rally. Derek has quiet a bit of experience under his belt having navigated for many drivers over the past few years and recently swapped seats to get behind the wheel. Dereks navigator Eoin Ryan, had never competed in rallying before. What an event to start off in! This was also Dereks first event in his newly built Honda Civic. Unfortunately for the crew, the event did not have the fairytale ending we had all wished for. They had a minor off road excursion on the penultimate stage that brought their rally to an end. Up to that point they were 11th overall in the Junior category and lying 6th in Class.

This was also Patrick Horan and Pa Bakers first attempt at the Killarney Stages in their Vauxhall Nova. The crew were dealt a cruel blow on Stage 1 Molls Gap when a driveshaft broke. To say this crew were on a mission is an understatement. They had already caught and passed a car after only 3 miles into the stage. Im sure the boys will pair up again for another outing.

Brian McNamara and Chrystal Culkeen suffered a similar fate on Stage 1 and their event came to an end on a sharp left hand bend. Unfortunately the crew were unable to continue after the off. Brian would normally be seen competing in his Pugeot 205 or navigating for Richard Casey in a MK 1 Escort. This man would be no stranger to going flat-out on the stages around the country.

Cavan's, Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Subaru WRC) won last weekend’s Fels Point Hotel Circuit of Kerry, the third round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship. They finished six seconds ahead of the Subaru of Monaghan's, Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry. Local Kerry driver, Mike Quinn in a Ford Escort, co-driven by Ennis lady Grainne McEnery, took a sensational third place. Grainne, a member of the Clare Motor Club and sister of Charlie McEnery who navigates with Anthony O’Halloran has been navigating with various drivers over the past number of years. She finally got the call from Mike Quinn last week to step into the top level of motorsport and she proved she was up to the mark. In fact this would be the highest place result for a lady member of the clare club in a National Championship round since the club was founded.

Clare driver John Leirnihan / Shane Ryan finished second in Class Fifteen and won best Clare Crew in their Mitsubishi Evo. Pakie Kelly / Derek Flynn from Ennis finished second overall in the junior section in their Honda civic.